I had this chapter saved and completely edited, and then my computer decided to die mid-send and not save it. If I missed any errors, I apologize.
I hope everyone has enjoyed the story. This is the epilogue that takes place some time after the main story line. I wanted to do a chapter on Tatsuki, because she's not really shown a lot in the manga. This chapter is almost a oneshot, but it is involved with the main story line.
Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
Tatsuki Arisawa roamed about the karate dojo, picking up the last of the discarded towels and equipment. She had half a mind to start giving everyone a punch for every piece of junk she had to clean up at the end of the day. She was a teacher, not a maid.
It had been a long day.
As she pulled the blinds to the main room shut, her mind began to float back to the better part of the last five months. Now that she had returned to her normal life, Tatsuki felt bored. While she was running around beating up Hallows and fearing for her life it had been easy to not think about what she would do afterward. Since she had settled back down, picked up the pieces of her life, Tatsuki was confused on where to go next.
Or what she was going to do, for that matter.
Leaving for the showers, she took a quick rinse, dressed, and packed her things to head back home. It was about a two mile walk to her apartment, but Tatsuki liked the quiet walk after a day of yelling and screaming.
Stopping next to the river, she stared at the calm water, and sat down.
Five months.
It had been five months since Ichigo and Orihime had return to Karakura with everyone else. They were all okay physically, but Tatsuki doubted that the war would be forgotten for the rest of anyone's lives. As the city was being repaired, officials explained the events in the past few months as a massive break in the gas pipe system. The pipes broke, and blew up half the city. By now many of the structures looked good as new, and the city was almost rid of all traces of that horrible day.
Many people had been injured, some had died.
Tatsuki closed her eyes, and pulled her legs to her chest. It was something that she did not like to think about.
A few days after the war had ended, Orihime had moved in with Ichigo and they were helping each other. Tatsuki was happy for them, as she had been very worried for both of her friends. Orihime had a habit of bottling everything in and trying to deal with it on her own, and Ichigo was so expressive and sensitive that Tatsuki thought he would be damaged for life.
Her two friends were taking care of each other, as it should be. They were getting better, and slowly healing.
A new shrine appeared down the west end of the city, built by some unknown benefactor. To her surprise, Ishida Uryuu and the Shinigami woman Nemu had both taken residence in it. They had been assigned to monitor the reiatsu levels of the city, and keep alert if the Arancar made any further movements towards Karakura. They seemed happy enough and Tatsuki wished both the Quincy and the Shinigami good luck, as odd as the whole situation seemed.
She remembered going to Renji and Rukia's wedding. It had been happy and she had fun going to the Soul Society. Despite the fact that the environment had been new and strange, it had been enjoyable for her.
Two months.
It had been two months since she had seen Muruguma Hansei. They had hung around for a while after the war, and then his job of fixing up the city and doing damage control had taken him to dig himself into work. Tatsuki had not seen Muruguma for two months straight.
She was even more confused about this than the fact that she did not know what to do with her life.
If he did not want to call her, that was fine. If he did not have the same feelings she did, that was okay too. She just always figured that at least he should have the manners to tell her to take a hike instead of ignoring her.
"You're being silly, girl." Tatsuki stood up. His apartment was only a block away, and she was going to march right over to tell him to screw off. So what if she never got to...that was not a big deal. Respect was a big deal.
Marching up the stairs of the gray-wall apartment, Tatsuki banged on his door.
"Muruguma! Open up!"
He was in there, she knew it. When there was no answer, she banged once more, and then shrieked as the door was yanked viciously open.
A ragged, pale, dazed man stood in the doorway.
Hansei stared at the recent visitor standing n his doorway.
For two months he had been holed up in his office and his house trying to deal with the police department and the fall-out from the war, he had barely slept or ate since his return from Hueco Mundo. After hitting the ground running, he had just recently been given a few days off. His superiors had finally told him that if he did not take a vacation they would handcuff him to the sink of his apartment to keep him there.
In the first couple days, he had gotten used to working to Arisawa Tatsuki. After getting to know her, they had worked together to try and piece the city back together with the rest of the population. When the police department was repaired and up again, he had been made to return to work at his office. His time with her had dwindled until he had not seen or heard from her in...he had forgotten how long it had been.
Hansei had been trying to sleep, and had woken up to voice a string of curses at the banging at his door. What the hell did they want? If it was the deputies telling him to come back to the office he was going to take the nearest blunt object and bash them over the head with it.
It had not been one of the officers.
Tatsuki Arisawa gave him a surprised expression as he whipped the front door open. She was wearing a blue tank top and an ankle-length matching skirt. It looked as if she had just gotten off work at the dojo, her hair was still slightly damp from when she had taken a shower.
Her face melted into a look of utter displeasure.
"Look here, Muruguma-"
Fuck that.
Tatsuki yelped once more as he grabbed her collar in a scruff grip and dragged her into his apartment, slamming the door behind her.
"What the hell-"
He kissed her, shoving her against the back of the door. It had been so long since he had seen her, and it had not taken him long to realize how much he had missed her, even less time to realize that he loved her. That spunky, loud-mouthed, tomboyish woman that he remembered kicking a Hallow straight in the mask.
"Muruguma!" she gasped as he ravaged her lips, having not even said a word to her yet, "Wait...Hansei!"
Whatever was going to happen, he was not going to let even a single hour go by without her knowing what he felt. She had not called in the time that he had started going back to that office, and he had been afraid that he had read her wrong. Her arms then dropped to her sides as he slipped his hand under her legs and hoisted her up the door. With her height above his, she looked down into his eyes in the dark background of the apartment.
"Did you say something?" he murmured, brushing his lips over hers, only pressing her back deeper into the door.
Tatsuki's eyes gazed down at his, and for that moment, she really did not give a damn about anything else. The whole world could have been blowing up and she would not have left that apartment.
"Nevermind."
Her fingers dug into his hair, and she kissed him back.
It was only a second, or that was what it felt like, before he dragged her down the hallway and dumped her on the unmade bed. Calloused but gentle hands divested her of clothes, and tossed them haphazardly into the evening dusk of the room. Tatsuki could not help but laugh out loud as he sat up to do the same with his own clothes.
Laughter died down to a smile, and then a sigh as he settled over her.
She had not thought she would end up at this point from where she was thinking by the stream. All Tatsuki had thought about was giving him a talking to, but now she was laying beneath him in a mound of messy sheets, and all she thought about was how close she could get to him.
"I'm rough." he told her as he moved, careful not to hurt her. She was so tiny, and he had to be at least a head or more taller than her, not to mention close to seventy pounds heavier, "I lack any ability for tact."
"I noticed." she breathed into his ear.
"I'm not good with words, and I don't always say the right things." he said, brushing his lips over hers, and trailing them over her throat, "I offend people all the time without intending too."
"...yeah..."
"I..." he felt her heels dig into the back of his legs, "I don't always know what the right thing is to do."
"You're only human, Hansei." she brushed her hands over his face, his short hair was damp.
"But I do love you, and I want you to stay with me." he said, "I missed you, and I-"
She interrupted him by kissing his mouth, "I was waiting to hear that." she said, "Took you a damn long time to say it."
After, they lay in bed tangled in the sheets, she was resting on his chest. Hansei stared at the ceiling, wondering himself what she was going to do about him now. Tatsuki folded her arms over his chest and looked down at him.
"Hey."
A smile crept across his face as he finally came to a decision and his ran his fingers through her short hair. He liked her hair, it was so smooth despite what someone might think. Glancing over at the clock he sat up, moving her to the side.
"Want dinner?"
"Sure."
Tatsuki watched him stand up, pull on a pair of shorts and black sweatpants, and disappear down the hallway. She lounged in the bed a moment before grinning to herself, and then got up. Finding one of his t-shirts on the floor, she pulled it on. It fell to her knees, and she paced out to the kitchen where she found him at the stove.
"You cook?"
"Why not?" Hansei raised his eyebrows at her, "It tastes better than take-out."
"Course." she beamed and sat the counter across from where he stood. Looking towards the window, she found herself staring at the starry sky. Just a little while ago, she felt alone. Everyone seemed to be running off with someone except for her. Ishida, Kurosaki, Orihime, Rukia...everyone. Sitting in the kitchen with Hansei made her feel like she belonged somewhere.
"Hey Tatsuki, wanna marry me?"
"Okay." she replied without thinking, "Wait, what?"
It was then that he laughed out loud, almost dropping the skillet in his hand.
"You can't take it back." he grinned, waving a wooden spoon in the air, his back still turned to her.
"You caught me off guard!" she jumped down from the stool and walking over to him, "I wasn't paying attention!"
"What? Want me to get down on one knee and ask?"
"Yes! Wait!...No, I mean-"
It had been a long time since she remembered being this confused. Here he was, asking her to marry him, and she was completely taken by surprise. Turning off the stove and setting the pan aside, Tatsuki followed him as he head down the hallway back to his room.
Hansei was chuckling to himself as she ranted. In the last couple months of not being able to see her, he had a lot of time to think through his own thoughts. Normally, he charged forward and took want he wanted. Taking his time had paid off in the end, and letting the both of them to decide how sure they were about each other worked in his favor.
Before his return to the office, they had spent almost every day together helping to rebuild the city. Other help had come from outside, but much of the construction was being done by Karakura alone. They had ate together, talked together, worked together...and it had become almost a normal feeling for them to be together. When he had started to fight the 4th Espada during the war, he had sworn to himself that he would be able to tell her how he felt if he lived through the fight.
But he still had...needed to think about it.
Tatsuki was still launched into a barrage of questions and comments as he calmly opened the top drawer of his dresser and began yanking things out of it. Where was that damn thing anyway?
The war was over now. Everything was peaceful, and now it was his chance to enjoy it.
"Hey, you!" she demanded, "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"
His hand brushed over something soft in the back of the dresser, and he smiled, "Ah, found it."
She watched him pulled something out, and Tatsuki folded her arms as he headed towards her.
"You should look at me when I'm talking to you, and stop smiling! Am I really that amusing? What are you doing-" she paused, and fell silent. He had taken her hand as she spoke, slipped on the golden band with the single diamond on her left hand, and tossed the box back in the dresser. She went pale, and then whispered so softly he could barely hear her, "...what's this?"
"A ring." he said, shoving his hands back in his pockets and walking back towards the kitchen. Damn, he was hungry...
She stared at it, absently following him, "You bought me a ring."
He smirked at her, and turned back down the hallway. Before he reached the kitchen he felt a pair of small, but strong arms lock around his waist. She wanted to tell him a lot of things, but at that moment she could not seem to say any of them.
They had each other now, he smiled to himself, as he turned around and held her. Something good came out of that long, terrible war. He would no longer have to wake up in that cold apartment alone. Neither of them would have to fight any more, or have to worry about someone trying to destroy the world, or have to think about the Arancar out to get them.
All they had to do now was simply live their lives.
"Come in the kitchen and I'll whip us something to eat." he said, smoothing a hand over her hair.
Tatsuki beamed at him, not really remembering the last time she felt this happy. Since the whole thing started back in high school with the Hallows attacking the school and when Orihime first left for Hueco Mundo, she felt like everything was really over and back to normal.
"Okay."
This is dedicated to all the readers and reviewers ::as cheesy as that sounds:: because you guys keep me sane during those days of the week where school stresses me out. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and for your patience. Five Years has by far been one of my favorite stories to write, and I was happy to share it with everyone.
The sequel is out. At the beginning it may be slow to update, but it will pick up after a few chapters. If you enjoyed this story, head over and try reading the new fic. Thanks again, everyone! Send a review and tell me what you think. :D
Arigato
Lilith Rei